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Sunday, July 29, 2012

An Interview with Lisa Henry

How excited am I today? Really excited. Because Lisa Henry is here in
the interview hotseat to answer some questions. Lisa is the author of the
excellent Tribute (now available in
paperback) and unless you’ve been living under a rock…or on an island (rimshot),
you’ve heard of her latest book, The Island. If you haven’t read it yet, do yourself a favor. It’s as good as
you’ve heard it is. And I’m about to gush all over it until it slowly scoots
its chair away from me.

Lisa, welcome to the blog.

Hello!

You live in Australia. I’ve never been to Australia. Please confirm for
me that just before you sat down for this interview, you chased a wombat out of
your yard, fed the kangaroos, went surfing, and made an appointment to have the
drop bear exterminators come by.

All apart from the drop bear exterminators
because, you know, nothing can kill drop bears. Those things are lethal.

But I’m not lying when I tell you that at
least twice a week I have to evict a tree frog from my toilet, and keep my
bread locked away because otherwise the possums break in through the shutters
to steal it. I have named one of the possums Johnny Rotten. Here he is doing a
pathetic job of breaking in. I mean, the door was open.

I love him!

I was recently fooled by the drop bear legend while doing research for
a book. I don’t consider myself a gullible person, but Google made this
renegade koala subspecies seem so real. Have you ever personally told an
unsuspecting non-Australian that drop bears exist?

Yes. It is my patriotic duty.

Around the same time I learned about drop bears, I first heard rumors
that dolphins rape people. You live closer to dolphins than I do. Will you
please go ask them what’s up with that?

I’m too scared to approach them now.

Well I’m not going to do
it—what if they drag me to their rape caves? Can we get Johnny Rotten to do it?

I have a lot of questions about The
Island. Normally in interviews I like to ask people questions that they
probably haven’t been asked before. But in this case, to satisfy my own
curiosity, I’m going to ask a bunch of really standard author interview
questions. Such as:

When and how did the idea for The
Island come to you?

I’ve always loved stories with unreliable
narrators, and always wanted to try and write a story where the reader isn’t
being shown the whole picture. In The
Island, Shaw doesn’t lie to the reader anymore than he lies to himself, but
the impression that the reader gets is very different from what is actually
going on. I wanted there to be an “Aha!” moment, like those Magic Eye pictures you’ve
stared at for ages that suddenly come into focus. That’s the story that I
wanted to write. I shaped the plot around that central idea.

I’m curious about your author-character relationship with Shaw, the MC.
He spends so much of the book rejecting the notion that he is or could ever be
a “good guy.” Was he a hard character to write?

I loved writing Shaw! The guy exists in a
moral grey area, which is absolutely fascinating to me. He’s a good guy in the
sense that he’s on the side of right, but does the end always justify the
means? I got to explore those questions as I wrote Shaw, and I also got to
write an Australian character, who got to say what we’re all thinking: At least when we have
a world series, we’re not the only country in it. I mean, c’mon, guys!

Ouch. Okay, fine.

It was
actually much harder to write Lee, because for so much of the story he’s
passive and it would have been too easy just to make him the pretty, pitiful
victim. His character deserved more than that.

The ending is one of my favorite things about the book—those last forty
pages or so where you take the time to describe Lee’s recovery process and the
events that lead him to seek Shaw. I feel like the ending could have been very
rushed and a lot of those details glossed over to get to the HEA, and I was so
glad it wasn’t like that. Did you know from the get-go that you were going to
devote that kind of time to rebuilding Lee?

Without rebuilding Lee he would have been
just what he was to Vornis and the others — an object. He had to be a person. I
could only show so much of that in flashback; there had to be recovery as well.
If Lee’s recovery didn’t feel real, it would have invalidated everything that
came before it.

Another thing I really appreciated was Lee’s therapist asking, “Do you
think that it [Lee and Shaw’s relationship] could in any way be an even
relationship?” I felt that was an important point to acknowledge, even if
there’s no definite answer to the question. Do you personally think Shaw and
Lee’s relationship ever can be an even one?

I have to thank Theresa, my editor, for
that. She asked that exact same question in an early email, and I totally stole
it. You’re right: it had to be addressed even though it couldn’t be answered.

I think that Shaw and Lee can have an equal
relationship, in time. They aren’t there at the end of The Island, because Lee is still very much finding his feet. But
Lee is stronger than he thinks, and Shaw is better than he thinks, so I think
they’ll get there in the end. I hope it came across that while Shaw saved Lee physically,
Lee saved Shaw on an emotional level. Shaw and Lee were exactly what they each
needed. Shaw was a man who really didn’t like what he was becoming. In saving
Lee, Shaw also saved himself.

The whole time I was reading The
Island, I kept thinking if this book had been available to me when I was a
sixteen or seventeen, I would have felt so much less alone as far as the kind
of romance I fantasized about. To find such a dark m/m a romance with strong themes
of violence and redemption that tackles complex moral issues is really cool.
When you write romance, to what extent are you thinking about what readers
might want to see—or what you’re able to do for them—and to what extent are you
writing for yourself?

I am always writing for myself, so in that
sense it’s a massive surprise when other people actually like it! If I start
worrying about what other people might like or dislike, I’d never get anything written
at all.

The relationship between violence and sex
fascinates me. Whether we like it or not, people are violent. And whether we
like it or not, sex is not always an expression of mutual love and respect. I
love exploring the grey areas, because that’s what interests me. People are
complicated. Characters should be as well.

Also, when I was sixteen I was totally
attempting to write m/m dark/violent/torture/sex/hurty-comfort/pain. Then my
Mum found it. And we had a Serious Talk. And she didn’t look me in the eye for about
a month afterward, but at least we laugh about it now, right?

Wow. I’m glad you can laugh about it now, and that it didn’t dissuade you
from continuing to write on those themes. At that age I was always scared
someone was gonna find that kind of stuff in my notebooks or on my computer and
I would never recover from the shame. Now my parents buy my books and are like,
“Good job, honey.” Go figure.

What, if anything, was different for you about writing The Island versus writing Tribute?

The
Island is the flipside to Tribute. Tribute is very much a fantasy
about sexual slavery, and as a fantasy I think you’re allowed to suspend your
disbelief. It’s a fantasy scenario in a fantasy universe, so when bad shit
happens to Kynon it’s okay to be a voyeur. It’s okay to watch him lose his
innocence, and sit back and enjoy the ride. As I wrote Tribute though, I kept thinking to myself, This is not how it would be in reality.In reality it would be fucked up. So even though they have nothing
in common, a lot of The Island came
straight from Tribute.

Well put. That’s what I loved about Tribute,
being able to enjoy that fantasy. What’s a typical writing day like for you?

My day job is shift work, so I don’t do
routines. If I’m on nights I’ll take my laptop into work and try and get some
writing done there — I have a very cool boss. Otherwise I’ll write after work.
I write best after dark, with a glass of wine close by.

I’ve heard you say that you’re not the most organized person in the
world. Nor am I. Rank these organizational tools on a scale of most to least
intimidating:

Excel spreadsheet - I don’t do Excel. Or anything with numbers.

Chapter by chapter outline - terrifying. Oh god no! This is kryptonite to all
committed pansters. Having said that, I’ll go through my shambles of a first
draft with a fine toothcomb and cut and paste the hell out of it.

Calendar. I have a calendar. I just don’t write on it. Or look at it. I think it
was a Christmas present.

Partitioned drawers - I’m currently looking at the pile of paperwork on my
floor that has slipped off the chair it was living on. ’nuff said.

Labels - I
like labels, and I admire people organized enough to use them. I’m just not one
of them.

Buxton Bag - I had to Google this. I’m not intimidated by the idea of
these, but I would never buy one because I feel it would try to judge me.

Day planner - My day planner is on my phone. I put my shifts in it. I
did have one on my wall, but I haven’t written on it since January.

Grocery list - I have an iPhone app. Seriously. Not because I’m tech
savvy, but because I kept losing my bits of paper.

I’m afraid I would put my hand in to grab my prescription and
accidentally pull out Jimmy Hoffa’s body.

My
god! That is phenomenal! Okay, now I’m intimidated.

I understand that your dog, like mine, enjoys eating things that maybe
the average person wouldn’t consider edible. Please make a list of the
strangest thing your dog has chewed/devoured. I will make my list. And we’ll
compare.

Cleo has eaten:

My brother-in-law’s new expensive
sunglasses. This was not unusual, but it was less than an hour after he bought them
and it cost me $120.

An iPod. My iPod. Dammit.

Christmas. Okay, so I’d just spent an hour putting up all the Christmas lights
on my verandah, and I thought, I’ll just
grab a chair and put a piece of tinsel above the door. In the
less-than-thirty-seconds it took me to get a chair, Cleo had chewed through the
power cord of the Christmas lights. My family discovered me ripping down the
Christmas tree and shouting that we weren’t having Christmas EVER AGAIN.

A lizard. It was still alive. Give me the lizard, Cleo, I said. Drop it, Cleo. Have you ever seen the
dogs suck in spaghetti in The Lady and
the Tramp? It was like that, but traumatic.

Also, she once put a frog in her mouth but
I think it did something disgusting because she spat it out and then threw up.
In my car.

Eyesight the plush carrot. Technically her toy to do with as she wished,
but still, the violent removal of Eyesight’s sweet smiling carrot face and
subsequent strewing of stuffing was both impressive and disturbing.

1/3 of my mom’s couch.

My mom’s Bluetooth. Oops.

My khakis. (Then puked them up on and around my toilet. But not in.)

The family dog’s hump toy, a stuffed beagle called Gnarles Barklay.

My mom’s TV remote.

I don’t know why she
mostly eats stuff when we’re visiting my mom. Or why my family feels compelled
to name stuffed animals.

I’m not going to be able to get that Lady and the Tramp lizard image out of my head.

Once you have made your choices, please compose a blurb for a book that
features these characters. Try to incorporate at least three of the following
words/phrases. You get 500 million points if you use them all.

what he didn’t count on

before it’s too late

a case of mistaken identity

the rightful owner of the diamond

an age old family feud

love

the storm of the century

from his past

vacation

swordsmanship

the shores of

the most dangerous game of all

Daniel Pike-Landoll, pet shop
owner and part-time blues guitarist, doesn’t have time for a relationship. With the storm of the century forming just
off the shores of Miami, Daniel is astonished to receive a mysterious package
containing what appears to be the fabled Rajah’s Diamond. Is this a case of
mistake identity, or is the diamond somehow linked to an age-old family feud
that Daniel thought he’d escaped when he left England? What he didn’t count on
was Greg “Sparkles” Majoy, an undercover cop from his past, turning up on his
doorstep just as the rain starts to fall.
Greg claims he’s just in Miami on vacation, but since when did a guy
carry a loaded Magnum on vacation? To say nothing of his swordsmanship…

Things heat up as the storm
bears down, but Daniel and Greg need to get out of Miami before it’s too late.
What neither of them realise is the rightful owner of the diamond is not the
only man looking to get it back. In this game of international cat and mouse,
no-one is taking any prisoners. And Daniel finds out that he might just be a
pawn in the most dangerous game of all — love.

WELL DONE.

YAY! Where do I pick up my 500 million
points?

Redeemable at any frozen food stand. If you haven’t already, please title
this masterwork.

Uncut! LOL! I made a diamond/penis joke!

Haha! High five. Hey, who gets the rights to this idea? ’Cause I kinda
want to write it.

Last—and most random—question: If you could be any celebrity for a day,
who would you be and why?

I would be the Queen. How weird would that
be? Every day people show you hospitals and ships and ask you to cut ribbons
and dig little holes, and smile for the cameras. I wonder if she thinks that’s
what the world is. It would be totally surreal.

Thank you so much for taking the time to participate in this interview.
Best of luck with your current projects!

Thank you so much! Is this where I mention
I’m currently working on a novella for Riptide Publishing? I get to invoke my
inner history nerd, because this one is set in Ancient Rome. It’s the story of
two very different men who have one thing in common — they both want to kill
the emperor Nero.

I can’t wait to tell you more about it!

I can’t wait to hear
more about it! You heard it here first, folks—unless you already heard it on
her website—Lisa Henry is treating us to love and intrigue Ancient Rome style
in her upcoming toga-ripper, He Is Worthy.
Congrats, Lisa!

Do togas get ripped?
Tell me togas get ripped.

Hmm…not
much toga ripping, but I like to think I’ve made up for that with a scene in a
bathhouse. Oh yes. A Roman bathhouse.